Damaged
by The Silverthorn
Summary: A hero, damaged beyond repair. What will it take to make him smile once more?


** Damaged**

"_SONIC!"_

"_I'm coming, just hold on! Don't worry!"_

"_My hands, they're slipping!"_

"_Just hold on! I'm nearly there! I'll get you, I promise!"_

"_Hurry!"_

"_I'm here, reach up, I'll won't let you slip!"_

"_I'm trying, I'm...I'm scared"_

"_Trust me..."_

"_I'm can just... AHHHH!"_

"NOOOO!" I screamed as I jolted up from another horrible nightmare. I'm was sweating all over, gasping for breath.

"Another dream, just another one" I mutter as I falls back on my cold pillow. I'm can't go back to sleep, I won't. I don't want to see it, relive it. I can't bear it.

Although it was just fragments, a blurry vision. That dream wasn't a dream, but a memory.

A horrific memory, I could never forget.

It was an accident, pure chance. I tried to help, tried to save her. But I couldn't, not in the end.

It happened about a year ago. I could never forget it, not ever...

_By a cliff side, on the edge of the green hill zone, another battle with the notorious Doctor Eggman was once again in full play. Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Amy were in full battle mode, ready to take on whatever came their way. Wave after wave of robots came to take down the four heroes. But they fought strong, after all they were used to this. This was practically routine._

_One by one the robots were destroyed, and soon it was only Eggman and the heroes remaining._

"_Don't you get tired of this Eggman?" Sonic replied cockily, his face showing off his trade mark grin _

"_I hope you don't think that, that was all I had?!" Doctor Eggman replied, his face crippling with disgust and irritation. Quickly, the team poised themselves, ready for another attack. Eggman looked at the four heroes with evil glee as he pressed down on a button on his control pad. _

_For a while nothing happened, the heroes looked around in confusion._

_But soon, the ground started to grumble and shake. Eggman smiled manically. _

_Almost in an instant, another army of robots arrived at their location._

"_Have fun trying to defeat this lot of robots, I'll think you'll find that these are modified to fight against each one of your attacks" Eggman said with pride "Enjoy..." And with that Eggman left the heroes fight off the new deadly race of robots. _

_The robots fired an immense amount of missiles to the team, but they just managed to dodge them by a hair thread. A new battle had now started, and it was going to be long, very long. As the battle drew by, the team became more tired and wounded, new bruises were made and cuts were torn. _

_Finally, the battle seemed to come to a close, as one by one the robots were destroyed, until only a few more remained_

"_Just a few more" Knuckles panted through breaths "Only a few" _

_Wanting to end this battle soon, Amy ran towards another, her hammer ready and waiting in her hand. She jumped up, and fell to another robot, ready to smash it into pieces. _

_But as she was in mid flight, another robot noticed her, and prepared to attack her._

_Before she knew it, Amy was thrown to the side and tumbled down the cliff edge, and off. Amy was now, scared, disoriented and hanging off the cliff edge by her hand_

"_SONIC!" She cried with fear, Sonic snapped his head to the direction of the cry, only to find a small pink hand, hanging onto the cliff edge. immediately, he knew who it was_

""_I'm coming, just hold on! Don't worry!" he called out, trying to calm her as he fought his way through the wall of robots. _

_Amy looked up at the cliff edge, her hand was getting sweaty, and she felt her self slipping_

"_My hands, they're slipping!" _

"_Just hold on! I'm nearly there! I'll get you, I promise!" Sonic called back, trying immensely hard to fight through. Amy's hand got sweatier and soon she slipped down, but quickly managed to hold on to a smaller ledge._

"_Hurry!" Amy cried out as she hung on the ledge by her fingers. Before long, Sonic managed to get to the cliff edge, he leaned over and reached out his hand, trying to her a hold of Amy_

""_I'm here, reach up, I'll won't let you slip!" he called down, Amy tried to reach up, but her fear paralysed her_

"_I'm trying, I'm...I'm scared" she whimpered_

"_Trust me..." Sonic replied, Amy looked up at her hero, she pushed up with her hand and tried to reach up to his hand_

"_I'm can just... AHHHH!" As Amy reached up her hand slipped and she fell down the cliff, into the icy waters below. _

"_AMY!" Sonic screamed, his heart full of fear and shock. He just looked down at the waters below, hoping he would see her face come up, alive. But no such luck. Alas..._

_Amy was gone._

I can never forgive myself for that. I should have been faster, quicker, but instead, I let her fall. Fall to her death.

What's worse, I told her to trust me, that she could have faith in me that she wouldn't fall. But she did, and as such, I failed her.

Her funeral was a couple of weeks after the accident, all of Amy's closest friends came, since she had no family left, well, we were her family. Tails, Knuckles, and of course Cream attended, even Shadow, Rouge and Silver came. And then myself.

Everyone was morbid, wistful. The youngest cried while the others stayed silent, letting the tears roll down their cheeks.

Cream especially cried, she wept and wept. Tried to tell herself it was some horrible nightmare. If only.

Tails cried a lot too, he and Amy were close. Fate was cruel to take her away.

I didn't weep, but I cried, I shed tears.

There are a little people I shed tears to.

None of us spoke at the funeral, we let the pastor say a couple of words, and then he left. Leaving us to watch the painful process of Amy's body leaving the surface world. Cream couldn't stay and watch, neither could Tails, or Rouge. The rest of us watched, but soon I was the only one left.

I just stood by her grave, motionless, expressionless. Dead. Breathing, but dead.

Amy Rose

1985 – 1999

To the world, a friend.

To us, family.

Keep smiling Amy, until the stars no longer shine.

We will never, EVER forget you.

That's on her grave, she was only 14 when she died. That's too young, far too young. She had so much more to live for.

We talked about what should be on her grave, those were the best words we could bring. Short words, but honest words.

She was family, to us. And it's painful to lose family.

Amy's death effected everyone, not a huge, massive impact, but still noticeable. It's like a sheet of gloom, depression and darkness has just enveloped us all, we hardly smile nowadays. I never smiled since. We seem to be losing out touch on fighting, or building, or whatever it is. Slightly thought, like I said, not a huge impact, but noticeable.

Everything's just grey, grey and black. There's no colour, no light, no spark in life. Not in my life anyway.

Cream has stopped crying so often, but she's grown depressed. She still cries out from time to time, wishing her best friend would return.

Knuckles gets angrier nowadays, his short temper has increased, and when he gets angry, it bad, very bad.

Tails has just grown quiet, I mean he talks, but not much. He just works on his machines. I don't know if its a coping strategy or something, but he's changed.

Well, I've changed too. I've slowed down, I just don't seem to have that energy I used to. It takes effort to move and my head just feels heavy, all the time. And I can't breathe, find it hard, like all the air is escaping my lungs.

Tails said I'm suffering from something called depression, or grief. I didn't quite understand what it is, but it's basically when your sad and tired all the time. I guess he's right.

It's 5 in the morning right now and I can see that sleep will not come my way tonight. It's weird, I'm always tired, but I can never seem to sleep, or when I do, I'm usually haunted by nightmares.

I need to get out, I need to breathe, just to breathe the sky, I need to feel the air in my lungs. I move over to my left and grudgingly get out of my bed. I can see the picture I keep of Amy by my bed side table, she's happy in the photo, she has her sweet smile on her face and her fingers are making a peace sign. It's one of the only pictures I have of her, and I hold it precociously.

I've gotten out of bed, nowadays that's an accomplishment, and now I'm heading to the door. I take a deep breath as I open my front door and leave to confinement of my home.

Outside, its not cold, but not warm either. It was dark, but the sun would soon arrive on the horizon.

I'm just walking, I know where I'm going, it's where I always go.

Amy's grave.

It takes me a while but I arrive there. The graveyard as a whole is actually quite picturesque, as graveyards go. There are a few trees and it's on top of a hill that over looks the sea.

I open the rusty old gate that leads into the graveyard, its squeaks as it's opened and squeaks as it closes. Right at the corner, by the oldest oak tree, is Amy's grave, still untouched, still undamaged, just as I want it to be.

Now, this is what I protect, if anyone or anything was to ruin it... they would never see the light of day again.

Amy's grave is of a pale white, the lettering engraved in black. On her grave, there was always a fresh set of flowers, roses of course, all different colours.

"Hey Ames" I say as I arrive at her grave "It's me again, Sonic" Like always, no response. I sigh with desperation as the words just don't flow out.

"I just... I just want you to know that I'm so, so sorry" I say, my face scrunching up with regret and anguish "I should have been faster, much faster, I could have saved you then, and you would be with us, and we'd all be alright, we'd be okay" Some tears are flowing down my cheeks. Damn it, I can't cry, I mustn't. I have to stay strong. For her.

"We would have been together, you and me, if I wasn't so slow!" Screw it, the tears are flowing and they can't be stopped

"I'm so sorry Amy!" I cry out as I fall to my knees. I cry for a while, not speaking, just crying. I feel stupid, weak. A hero should never cry, he should always be strong, but let's face it, I'm no hero. If I couldn't save her, if I couldn't keep my promise to her, then what hero am I?

"An amazing one..." a gentle voice says in the wind. My ears perk up as the voice reaches my ears and mind. I look around, trying to find the source of the voice.

And there, facing away from the sea and looking at me, was Amy.

I stand up, wanting to run towards her and embrace her in my arms, but I stop myself as I look closer at her.

Her figure was translucent, she was a ghost, a spirit.

"Amy?" I ask with certain doubt

"Who else?" she replied with a small smile

"But you're a ghost..."

"Yes, an image, but still here" an awkward silence came upon us

"Funny, the never quiet hedgehog, is now silenced" Amy says with a small laugh

"Are you in my mind?" I ask

"I don't know, am I?" she asked

"I don't know" I reply

"Neither do I" she replies with another small laugh, but it soon dies down as she looks at me with concerned eyes

"You've grown sadder since we last met" she said with sorrow

"That's because last time we met, you were alive" I reply

"That's no excuse" Amy replies, I look at her with a confused expression "Just because I'm dead, doesn't mean you have to mourn me all the time"

"It's easier said than done" I reply gloomily

"I know, I know" Amy replied "But if you don't try soon, it'll just get harder to let go"

"I don't want to let go" I mutter, Amy smiles sadly, and comes up towards me, I see her place her ghostly hands on mine

"You have to, if not for yourself then for me, and for the others" she says

"But I broke my promise to you, I promised that I would protect you at all cost and I failed that" I neatly cry

"I don't think you have" she replied "You can still protect me, just not not physically"

"How?" I ask as I look up to her

"My memory, you can protect the memory of me, and let it live on forever" She smiles as she said those words "But you have to let me go first"

I look at her, at her ghostly figure, could I really let her go?  
"Mobius needs you, the universe needs you, your friends need you, they can't have you if your still with me, you're a hero Sonic, not a mourner"

I look away from her, the sun is starting to rise, the new day would soon arrive upon us.

"Let me go" Amy whispers in my ear. I look at her, my eyes watering, but a gently move away and nod

"Alright Ames, I let you go, for you, for me and for our friends"

Amy smiles as she takes a couple of spaces back, the sun now shining on her, almost making her invisible

"Just remember, run Sonic, run you clever boy and remember me" she says with a smile

"I will... always" I reply, I see Amy starting to disappear as the sun rises from the horizon

"And Amy!" I call out before she goes "I love you" Amy smiles with joy

"I love you too!" she calls out before her figure disappeared completely.

I stand back as I watch the sun rise up into the sky, a new dawn had come, a bright one, for a a now brighter future.

And for the first time in a long time...

I smiled.


End file.
